Skip to content

Michigan · Nonprofit

LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER

LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $122,416 to it, the largest being MICHIGAN STATE BAR FOUNDATION ($83,475). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$316k
Funders on record
8
Grants received
$122k
Net assets
$1.6M
4/8 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 17%
01What it does

What Legal Assistance Center does

Mission

A legal self help center, the Legal Assistance Center works to educate, empower, and equip the people of our community to face and resolve legal challenges, to assure access to justice, and to thereby enhance individual, family, and community stability and prosperity, by providing legal information, forms, resources, guidance, and community connections to the many in our community unable to access legal representation.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Legal Assistance Center is a single site resource where everyone is welcome to seek basic legal help to manage the legal issues that affect their lives, their children, and their families when they cannot access legal representation. In a warm and welcoming environment, highly skilled lac staff and volunteers educate, empower, and equip people to be their own best advocate when using the court or solving legal challenges. Everyone who comes to the lac receives direct assistance and, when needed, a connection to legal, community, or other resources and services that will assure them a meaningful path forward.

    $221,304 spent$57,515 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $221,304.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($225k) Expenses 100 ($210k) Net assets 100 ($1.1M)2018 Revenue 102 ($229k) Expenses 115 ($240k) Net assets 92 ($1.0M)2019 Revenue 105 ($236k) Expenses 119 ($249k) Net assets 104 ($1.2M)2020 Revenue 126 ($283k) Expenses 113 ($238k) Net assets 112 ($1.3M)2021 Revenue 127 ($285k) Expenses 124 ($261k) Net assets 130 ($1.5M)2022 Revenue 124 ($280k) Expenses 131 ($274k) Net assets 105 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 110 ($247k) Expenses 136 ($286k) Net assets 112 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 180 ($406k) Expenses 149 ($312k) Net assets 131 ($1.5M)2025 Revenue 140 ($316k) Expenses 139 ($291k) Net assets 142 ($1.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (140)Expenses (139)Net assets (142)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $1.5M to $1.2M (−17%).

$1.1M
$1.0M
$1.2M
$1.3M
$1.5M
$1.2M
$1.3M
$1.5M
$1.7M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 19% · 2018 19% · 2019 18% · 2020 27% · 2021 29% · 2022 15% · 2023 25% · 2024 32% · 2025 39%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

60% of LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,802 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$15k
’17
−$11k
’18
−$13k
’19
$45k
’20
$24k
’21
$6k
’22
−$39k
’23
$94k
’24
$25k
’25
5.3
months of
reserve

Leadership and staff

The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed191920192020211820
Joined·+0+6+2+4+0+4+0+5
No longer listed·05330333
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $38k → $16.

3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

95% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER.

68%
largest funder
85%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 86% · 2019 100% · 2020 78% · 2021 71% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

20% of LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

96% of LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER's grant income comes from Michigan funders.

MI
CT

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
Michigan out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $16k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,661 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin8% · above the median
Months of reserve5.3mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,661 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER

Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Michigan

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 18%Fundraising 6%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

75%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MI

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • Grand Rapids Bar Association · exempt
  • Justice Foundation of West Michigan · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER?
LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $122,416 to it, the largest being MICHIGAN STATE BAR FOUNDATION ($83,475). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER have?
IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $122,416 in grants to LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER?
MICHIGAN STATE BAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $83,475 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds Legal Assistance Center →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 8 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing